Track Cycling World Championships: Sarah Lee on course to defend sprint title after reaching semi-finals in Berlin
- Hong Kong’s ace sprinter is unbeaten since beginning 2020 Tokyo qualifying campaign 16 months ago
- She will take on Emma Hinze of Germany in semi-finals after Hinze took the team sprint gold on opening day of world championships in Berlin
Sarah Lee Wai-sze is on course to defend her sprint crown after reaching the semi-finals at the UCI Track World Championships in Berlin on Thursday night.
The sprinting ace will take on Emma Hinze of Germany in a rematch of their duel in the final in the Hong Kong leg of the World Cup series in November, in which the home favourite won both races of the best-of-three tie at Tseung Kwan O velodrome.
The Hong Kong number one has not been beaten in the sprint since the beginning of the 2020 Tokyo Games qualifying campaign in 2018, but the German will be a hard nut to crack after an exceptional performance at the worlds so far.
Hinze and her partner Pauline Grabosch sounded an early warning in Berlin as they took the team sprint gold on the opening day, beating another top pairing, Kaarle McCulloch and Stephanie Morton of Australia, in the final.
Hinze also made an astonishing start in the sprint when the 22-year-old recorded the fastest time – 10.364 seconds – in the 200-metre flying start of the event’s qualifiers. Lee took fourth place in 10.478.